Stan Lee was recently named the 26th most influential American by Atlantic Monthly, but if it was up to me I would have put him quite a bit higher. Lee is, of course, best known as the co-creator of Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and dozens more, though controversy has always swirled around how big his real contributions might have been. But first and foremost Lee has always been the consummate salesman, whether it was selling the latest weird Spider-Man villain to the readers or hosting the television show Who Wants To Be A Superhero?
Lees latest projects are totally without connection to Marvel Comics. His company, Purveyors of Wonders, has been producing original characters for straight to DVD movies. One of the best is Mosaic, an animated film starring the voice of Anna Paquin as Maggie Nelson a high school student whose father is an Interpol agent investigating a mysterious race that can change appearance at will. After Maggie is bathed in the power of one of her fathers discoveries, an ancient runestone, she gets all the powers of a chameleon. Maggie teams up with a member of that ancient race, codenamed Mosaic, to defeat the evil Mannequin who wants to take over the world.
Check out the official site for Stan Lee Presents: Mosaic
Daniel Robert Epstein: So Stan, these are the Purveyors of Wonders projects youve been talking about for years.
Stan Lee: Yeah Purveyors of Wonder or POW! is our company. Obviously we wouldnt purvey anything that wasnt at least wonderful.
DRE: How involved are you with this?
Lee: I come up with the basic concept for what we do. Ill write an outline or a treatment or something of that sort. Then we find the best script writer to put it into script form and I stay on top of the whole operation.
DRE: Do you find it difficult to keep relevant?
Lee: I have this one problem. Im a little too hip. I have to cut back as much as I can because I dont want to lose too many readers or too many viewers because I am too advanced. When I walk past a bunch of kids playing ball in the street I am always surprised when they dont yell at me, Hey fella were one man short. You want to join us? I still feel like Im one of them.
DRE: I interviewed Roger Corman not too long ago who I believe youre friends with.
Lee: Hes a great guy.
DRE: His company is now doing stuff straight to DVD. I think some of the best stuff Im seeing now is straight to DVD. Do you feel this is a really untapped market?
Lee: I dont know how untapped it is because were starting to tap the hell out of it. Its a great market absolutely.
DRE: Did you find more freedom in straight to DVD movies than theatrical films or even comic books?
Lee: We can do whatever we want but I still love movies and television. But the beautiful thing about POW is that were involved in all of them. Were working on movies, TV series, videogames and were doing things for cell phones. DVDs are fun because we just decide to do one and we damn well do it.
DRE: People have trouble creating new franchise characters, whats the key to writing compelling characters?
Lee: Sure Im going to tell you so that all our competitors can make note and put us out of business [laughs]. The key is to create characters that people will care about and will want see more of. Now how you do that, I am not going to tell you.
DRE: [laughs] We spoke of a few years ago and you said that you werent a fan of pure fantasy, did you relax that a bit for Mosaic?
Lee: It depends on what youre talking about pure fantasy. If your story has nothing but fairytale qualities then Im not interested in it. Fantasy has to be tempered with reality. For example, one of the famous fairytales is Jack and the Beanstalk. The fantasy element is that he had magic beans and they grew a giant beanstalk that went up to the sky where a giant lived. Thats fantasy, but it was coupled with reality. Jack was a poor kid who lived with his mother. They didnt have enough money and finally she told him to sell their cow. By making the characters realistic and empathetic, you can go into fantasy but if everything is fantastic then it gets boring.
DRE: I know that you said many times that the executive producer credit you get on the Marvel movies are honorary.
Lee: I really dont have that much to do with producing the movies. Though many of them are based on the things that I have written years ago. As far as the production of the movies, there are so many talented people that they dont need any help from me.
DRE: Would you be interested in being more involved with the Marvel movies in the way you are involved with the Purveyors of Wonder projects?
Lee: Any creative juices that I have, I can expend on POW so I dont have to butt into other projects. At POW we are doing so many things that Im totally involved in so I do manage to keep busy and stuff.
DRE: I read that you will be making a cameo in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Lee: Yes and its a great appearance too. I have a couple lines to say and I think the viewers who are old Marvel fans will get a kick out of it because my appearance is based on something that happened in a Fantastic Four story years ago.
DRE: I assume that means Willie Lumpkin will be using his ear wiggling superpower.
Lee: Im not going to be Willie Lumpkin in this one. Ill be an even more recognizable figure and I cant tell you anymore.
DRE: Obviously I write for the internet and so much of the comic book community can be traced back to the fanzines that came about after you started printing peoples addresses on the Marvel Comics letters pages. What made you start doing that?
Lee: I just wanted to make everything personal and friendly and make it seem as if were all part of a little club. I wanted to have a warm friendly feeling for everything we did and I thought that helped.
DRE: Did you have any inkling that people would start corresponding with one another?
Lee: I hoped that would happen like that and it did and it was very satisfying. It was very gratifying.
DRE: I read that Atlantic Monthly voted you the 26th most influential American.
Lee: I dont know how I missed being in the first 25 but you cant win them all.
DRE: What does being a living legend mean to you?
Lee: Between you and me I dont give it much thought. I just keep busy doing what I am doing and having fun working with people that I like. Thats the most important thing. Ive always worked with people that are very talented and whom I like personally so it doesnt feel like work. You are joining your friends and you get to have a good time.
DRE: I always wondered why it seems that Marvel and whoever their parent company is never gives creators like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko their due. What are they afraid of?
Lee: I dont know what you mean but if what is it you would want them to do?
DRE: It always seemed that they never seem to get as much credit as they deserved.
Lee: Everything that theyve done, their name has been on. I make sure of that. How much more credit could they get? Anytime I do an interview and we are talking about Spider-Man or Dr. Strange, I always mention Steve Ditko. When we talk about some of the other things I always mention Jack. Nobody has been hiding them. Marvel publishes a series called Marvel Visionaries and one whole book was devoted to Jack. I think theyve done one devoted to Steve Ditko. Im happy to say they did one devoted to me. I dont really know what more you would want. Im not a spokesman for Marvel so Im not speaking as a Marvel representative but just as a guy outside looking in.
DRE: Years ago Daniel Clowes wrote a book called Dan Pussey and it had a Stan Lee-like character and Kirby had a character based on you in New Gods called Funky Flashman. How did you feel about those?
Lee: At that time Jack was mad at me and he had some fun doing it. I thought it was funny.
DRE: You thought it was funny even though he was mad at you?
Lee: Well, he didnt stay mad very long. If youve worked with an artist for years. its almost like a married couple. Every so often you have a quarrel then you get over it.
DRE: Are you working on any new comics?
Lee: Not really. I did some comics for Marvel called Stan Lee Meets. I am in the story and I meet Spider-Man and then I meet Dr. Doom. In another one I meet The Thing and Dr. Strange. John Romita Jr. has done the art. We planned to do that five years ago and I forgot all about it and John was busy. But he got the artwork done a couple months ago. Ill do a story if something comes up and if they ask me but basically I am pretty much out of comics now.
DRE: Howard Chaykin told me that he doesnt think comic books are going to last through his life time, which is another 30 years or so, because of computers and the internet. Do you think comic books have a lot of time left?
Lee: I think that comics will be around for a hell of a long time. My gosh, comics are fun to read. Now there is more competition then there has ever been. When I was writing comics they didnt have television, they didnt have videogames, they didnt have iPods and they didnt have computers. The only competition was movies. But comic books take their place with all the other forms of entertainment and I think that theyll always be here.
DRE: Its interesting that you say that while youre not working on comics anymore.
Lee: Believe it or not I dont think that I am so important that if I am not working on comics, the companies would fall. People would think that I am stupid or the most conceited guy in the world. Comic books are a great way to read a story. Movie producers are getting more and more interested in comics because they realize that they are great sources of material for TV shows and movies.
DRE: Marvel has many amazing properties but most of them are not nearly as popular as the X-Men and Spider-Man, do you think Marvel has properties that could be as popular in movies as those characters?
Lee: I dont know if they could be as big as Spider-Man but there is always a chance. I dont think that anyone will agree with me but I feel almost every character can be successful depending on how you write and produce the character and who plays the role and who directs it.
DRE: A lot more women are interested in superhero comics than ever before. Was that an audience that you found difficult to crack in the 60s and 70s?
Lee: Back then there werent many female readers but the movies have helped a great deal. Women who have seen X-Men and Spider-Man realize that there is romance, human interest and quite a bit of realism in them besides the fantasy. Thats what women like so more and more women are getting into comics and comic movies.
DRE: Youve said publicly that you and Steve Ditko were never friends, right?
Lee: Well, we didnt socialize. But I always thought of him as a friend when we worked together. I had great respect for his brilliant talent. He was so important in creating and making Spider-Man important.
DRE: Do you ever think hell show himself publicly again?
Lee: If I had to guess, I would say no. If he hasnt done it in all these years I dont know why he would do it now. For some reason the guy just doesnt want publicity or he just doesnt want to speak to the press. Its certainly his prerogative.
DRE: How many Stan Lee related tattoos have you seen on people over the years?
Lee: Quite a few. When I would go to comic book conventions for autographing, very often somebody would roll up their sleeve and say, Would you sign under the Spider-Man tattoo? Or under the Dr. Strange tattoo. One of them actually had a tattoo which was a caricature of me [laughs]. I dont think it did me justice, but hey, what are you going to do?
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Lees latest projects are totally without connection to Marvel Comics. His company, Purveyors of Wonders, has been producing original characters for straight to DVD movies. One of the best is Mosaic, an animated film starring the voice of Anna Paquin as Maggie Nelson a high school student whose father is an Interpol agent investigating a mysterious race that can change appearance at will. After Maggie is bathed in the power of one of her fathers discoveries, an ancient runestone, she gets all the powers of a chameleon. Maggie teams up with a member of that ancient race, codenamed Mosaic, to defeat the evil Mannequin who wants to take over the world.
Check out the official site for Stan Lee Presents: Mosaic
Daniel Robert Epstein: So Stan, these are the Purveyors of Wonders projects youve been talking about for years.
Stan Lee: Yeah Purveyors of Wonder or POW! is our company. Obviously we wouldnt purvey anything that wasnt at least wonderful.
DRE: How involved are you with this?
Lee: I come up with the basic concept for what we do. Ill write an outline or a treatment or something of that sort. Then we find the best script writer to put it into script form and I stay on top of the whole operation.
DRE: Do you find it difficult to keep relevant?
Lee: I have this one problem. Im a little too hip. I have to cut back as much as I can because I dont want to lose too many readers or too many viewers because I am too advanced. When I walk past a bunch of kids playing ball in the street I am always surprised when they dont yell at me, Hey fella were one man short. You want to join us? I still feel like Im one of them.
DRE: I interviewed Roger Corman not too long ago who I believe youre friends with.
Lee: Hes a great guy.
DRE: His company is now doing stuff straight to DVD. I think some of the best stuff Im seeing now is straight to DVD. Do you feel this is a really untapped market?
Lee: I dont know how untapped it is because were starting to tap the hell out of it. Its a great market absolutely.
DRE: Did you find more freedom in straight to DVD movies than theatrical films or even comic books?
Lee: We can do whatever we want but I still love movies and television. But the beautiful thing about POW is that were involved in all of them. Were working on movies, TV series, videogames and were doing things for cell phones. DVDs are fun because we just decide to do one and we damn well do it.
DRE: People have trouble creating new franchise characters, whats the key to writing compelling characters?
Lee: Sure Im going to tell you so that all our competitors can make note and put us out of business [laughs]. The key is to create characters that people will care about and will want see more of. Now how you do that, I am not going to tell you.
DRE: [laughs] We spoke of a few years ago and you said that you werent a fan of pure fantasy, did you relax that a bit for Mosaic?
Lee: It depends on what youre talking about pure fantasy. If your story has nothing but fairytale qualities then Im not interested in it. Fantasy has to be tempered with reality. For example, one of the famous fairytales is Jack and the Beanstalk. The fantasy element is that he had magic beans and they grew a giant beanstalk that went up to the sky where a giant lived. Thats fantasy, but it was coupled with reality. Jack was a poor kid who lived with his mother. They didnt have enough money and finally she told him to sell their cow. By making the characters realistic and empathetic, you can go into fantasy but if everything is fantastic then it gets boring.
DRE: I know that you said many times that the executive producer credit you get on the Marvel movies are honorary.
Lee: I really dont have that much to do with producing the movies. Though many of them are based on the things that I have written years ago. As far as the production of the movies, there are so many talented people that they dont need any help from me.
DRE: Would you be interested in being more involved with the Marvel movies in the way you are involved with the Purveyors of Wonder projects?
Lee: Any creative juices that I have, I can expend on POW so I dont have to butt into other projects. At POW we are doing so many things that Im totally involved in so I do manage to keep busy and stuff.
DRE: I read that you will be making a cameo in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Lee: Yes and its a great appearance too. I have a couple lines to say and I think the viewers who are old Marvel fans will get a kick out of it because my appearance is based on something that happened in a Fantastic Four story years ago.
DRE: I assume that means Willie Lumpkin will be using his ear wiggling superpower.
Lee: Im not going to be Willie Lumpkin in this one. Ill be an even more recognizable figure and I cant tell you anymore.
DRE: Obviously I write for the internet and so much of the comic book community can be traced back to the fanzines that came about after you started printing peoples addresses on the Marvel Comics letters pages. What made you start doing that?
Lee: I just wanted to make everything personal and friendly and make it seem as if were all part of a little club. I wanted to have a warm friendly feeling for everything we did and I thought that helped.
DRE: Did you have any inkling that people would start corresponding with one another?
Lee: I hoped that would happen like that and it did and it was very satisfying. It was very gratifying.
DRE: I read that Atlantic Monthly voted you the 26th most influential American.
Lee: I dont know how I missed being in the first 25 but you cant win them all.
DRE: What does being a living legend mean to you?
Lee: Between you and me I dont give it much thought. I just keep busy doing what I am doing and having fun working with people that I like. Thats the most important thing. Ive always worked with people that are very talented and whom I like personally so it doesnt feel like work. You are joining your friends and you get to have a good time.
DRE: I always wondered why it seems that Marvel and whoever their parent company is never gives creators like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko their due. What are they afraid of?
Lee: I dont know what you mean but if what is it you would want them to do?
DRE: It always seemed that they never seem to get as much credit as they deserved.
Lee: Everything that theyve done, their name has been on. I make sure of that. How much more credit could they get? Anytime I do an interview and we are talking about Spider-Man or Dr. Strange, I always mention Steve Ditko. When we talk about some of the other things I always mention Jack. Nobody has been hiding them. Marvel publishes a series called Marvel Visionaries and one whole book was devoted to Jack. I think theyve done one devoted to Steve Ditko. Im happy to say they did one devoted to me. I dont really know what more you would want. Im not a spokesman for Marvel so Im not speaking as a Marvel representative but just as a guy outside looking in.
DRE: Years ago Daniel Clowes wrote a book called Dan Pussey and it had a Stan Lee-like character and Kirby had a character based on you in New Gods called Funky Flashman. How did you feel about those?
Lee: At that time Jack was mad at me and he had some fun doing it. I thought it was funny.
DRE: You thought it was funny even though he was mad at you?
Lee: Well, he didnt stay mad very long. If youve worked with an artist for years. its almost like a married couple. Every so often you have a quarrel then you get over it.
DRE: Are you working on any new comics?
Lee: Not really. I did some comics for Marvel called Stan Lee Meets. I am in the story and I meet Spider-Man and then I meet Dr. Doom. In another one I meet The Thing and Dr. Strange. John Romita Jr. has done the art. We planned to do that five years ago and I forgot all about it and John was busy. But he got the artwork done a couple months ago. Ill do a story if something comes up and if they ask me but basically I am pretty much out of comics now.
DRE: Howard Chaykin told me that he doesnt think comic books are going to last through his life time, which is another 30 years or so, because of computers and the internet. Do you think comic books have a lot of time left?
Lee: I think that comics will be around for a hell of a long time. My gosh, comics are fun to read. Now there is more competition then there has ever been. When I was writing comics they didnt have television, they didnt have videogames, they didnt have iPods and they didnt have computers. The only competition was movies. But comic books take their place with all the other forms of entertainment and I think that theyll always be here.
DRE: Its interesting that you say that while youre not working on comics anymore.
Lee: Believe it or not I dont think that I am so important that if I am not working on comics, the companies would fall. People would think that I am stupid or the most conceited guy in the world. Comic books are a great way to read a story. Movie producers are getting more and more interested in comics because they realize that they are great sources of material for TV shows and movies.
DRE: Marvel has many amazing properties but most of them are not nearly as popular as the X-Men and Spider-Man, do you think Marvel has properties that could be as popular in movies as those characters?
Lee: I dont know if they could be as big as Spider-Man but there is always a chance. I dont think that anyone will agree with me but I feel almost every character can be successful depending on how you write and produce the character and who plays the role and who directs it.
DRE: A lot more women are interested in superhero comics than ever before. Was that an audience that you found difficult to crack in the 60s and 70s?
Lee: Back then there werent many female readers but the movies have helped a great deal. Women who have seen X-Men and Spider-Man realize that there is romance, human interest and quite a bit of realism in them besides the fantasy. Thats what women like so more and more women are getting into comics and comic movies.
DRE: Youve said publicly that you and Steve Ditko were never friends, right?
Lee: Well, we didnt socialize. But I always thought of him as a friend when we worked together. I had great respect for his brilliant talent. He was so important in creating and making Spider-Man important.
DRE: Do you ever think hell show himself publicly again?
Lee: If I had to guess, I would say no. If he hasnt done it in all these years I dont know why he would do it now. For some reason the guy just doesnt want publicity or he just doesnt want to speak to the press. Its certainly his prerogative.
DRE: How many Stan Lee related tattoos have you seen on people over the years?
Lee: Quite a few. When I would go to comic book conventions for autographing, very often somebody would roll up their sleeve and say, Would you sign under the Spider-Man tattoo? Or under the Dr. Strange tattoo. One of them actually had a tattoo which was a caricature of me [laughs]. I dont think it did me justice, but hey, what are you going to do?
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 20 of 20 COMMENTS
fitzsimmons:
Very cool interview.
cptattitude:
Awesome interview!